Uppara or Sagara is a Hindu caste belonging to Kshatriya Varna and are classified as

Backward Class The Other Backward Class is a collective term used by the Government of India to classify castes which are educationally or socially backward. It is one of several official classifications of the population of India, along with General castes, S ...

or OBC, predominately found in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana and Tamil Nadu. Reprint. Originally published: Madras : Supt. Govt. Press, 1909 They are also known as Suryavamshi Sagara Kshatriyas (or sagara kshatriyas), the descendants of

King Sagara Sagara () is a king of the Suryavamsha dynasty in Hinduism. The son of Bahuka, he ruled the city of Ayodhya, with two wives, and 60,001 sons. Legend Birth Sagara was born to Bāhuka, and his wife, Yadavi, at the ashrama of Sage Aurva, ...

Suryavamsha The Solar dynasty (IAST: Suryavaṃśa or Ravivaṃśa in Sanskrit) or the Ikshvaku dynasty was founded by the legendary king Ikshvaku.Geography of Rigvedic India, M.L. Bhargava, Lucknow 1964, pp. 15-18, 46-49, 92-98, 100-/1, 136 The dynasty is ...

. King

Sagara Sagara may refer to: People * Sagara (ethnic group), a people of Tanzania * Sagara (Vedic king), Ikshvaku dynasty * Sagara clan, a clan of 16th century Japan * Sekihotai (Sagara Souzou), a leader of the Sekihotai military unit during the Boshin ...

is one of the six legendary emperors known as Shat Chakravarthis. The story of King Sagara is narrated in ''

Vishnu Purana The Vishnu Purana ( IAST:, sa, विष्णुपुराण) is one of the eighteen Mahapuranas, a genre of ancient and medieval texts of Hinduism. It is an important Pancharatra text in the Vaishnavism literature corpus. The manusc ...

''. The primary activity of Sagaras in the 19th century was preparation of salt ('uppu' in Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam and Tamil is the same, which is 'salt') so they are called upparas by profession.

History

According to Buchanan, the most important occupation of the Telugu Upparas at the beginning of the nineteenth century was the manufacture of salt. Some members of the caste are

Vaishnavite Vaishnavism ( sa, वैष्णवसम्प्रदायः, Vaiṣṇavasampradāyaḥ) is one of the major Hindu denominations along with Shaivism, Shaktism, and Smartism. It is also called Vishnuism since it considers Vishnu as the ...

s and others

Saivite Shaivism (; sa, शैवसम्प्रदायः, Śaivasampradāyaḥ) is one of the major Hindu denominations, Hindu traditions, which worships Shiva as the God, Supreme Being. One of the largest Hindu denominations, it incorporates ...

s. They also worship various village deities, which vary according to the place of residence. The one man commission constituted by the

Government of Andhra Pradesh Government of Andhra Pradesh, abbreviated as, GOAP, or, Andhra Government, is the subnational government for the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is an elected government with 175 MLAs elected to the Legislative Assembly of Andhra Pradesh f ...

, chaired by Sri Anantha Raman in its report in 1968 made certain observations and recommendations regarding the Uppara or Sagara community. Some of the points mentioned in the report are as follows: *Uppara or Sagara is a caste of workers engaged in agriculture. *They also engaged in manufacturing salt. *When private manufacture of salt was forbidden during the British rule, the people of the community turned to other occupations. The Uppara seem to have made little shifts in an agrarian context. Losing their caste based occupation as salt makers, they mainly did agriculture. * The members of Sagara (Uppara) community are the descendants of Emperor Sagara of Suryavamsha spread throughout the Country and all over the world. He is one of the six legendary emperors known as ‘Shat Chakravarthis’. The story of King Sagara is narrated in ''Vishnu Purana''.

Demographics

The "Chinnappa Reddy Report (1990)" indicates that the Uppara make up about 1.18 percent of the population of Karnataka.

References

{{reflist Social groups of Tamil Nadu Indian castes Telugu society Social groups of Andhra Pradesh Social groups of Karnataka